State Again Targets License Of Trucker In Train Crash

April 02, 1999|By Christi Parsons, Tribune Staff Writer.

SPRINGFIELD — A week after reluctantly returning full driving privileges to a trucker whose rig was involved in the recent fatal Amtrak crash, Secretary of State Jesse White took action Thursday to suspend the man's commercial license, citing his record of speeding tickets.

White earlier said he had no alternative but to return the commercial driver's license of John Stokes, 58, of Manteno. But Thursday, White said he was able to begin the process of temporarily suspending Stokes' license after turning up a previously undisclosed speeding ticket Stokes received in Kankakee County.

Even with the suspension, however, Stokes will only lose his commercial driver's license for two months, and the suspension doesn't take effect until June 1. Stokes also will retain his personal driver's license, allowing him to drive cars.

The situation highlights what White describes as "a hole" in Illinois law, which he contends leaves him with no alternative but to let Stokes continue driving a truck until June 1. State law requires that White's office give Stokes two months' notice before suspending his license.

White says he will ask the General Assembly to change the law to allow for immediate suspensions. But he acknowledged that any change wouldn't come soon enough to keep Stokes from driving for now.

"There is nothing more I can do to keep him off the roads," White said. "I am not comfortable with that, that you have this man out driving for two months. But my hands are tied."

On March 15, 11 train passengers were killed and more than 100 were injured when Amtrak's City of New Orleans slammed into Stokes' rig at a rail crossing near Bourbonnais, about 50 miles south of Chicago.

Stokes told authorities that he didn't see the oncoming train, which was traveling at 79 m.p.h. He said the crossing's warning bells and lights activated after he pulled onto the tracks.

But investigators are trying to determine whether Stokes ignored the crossing signals when he started over the tracks. If Stokes is charged with criminal wrongdoing in the incident, state officials could revoke his driving privileges.

Prosecutors in Kankakee County, where the crash occurred, are not expected to file any charges soon, however. Law-enforcement officials have said the investigation could take up to a year to complete.

Until then, White, whose office administers driver's licenses, says he can only take away Stokes' driving privileges for 60 days based on his driving record, which includes several moving violations.

A week before, White's office had returned Stokes' commercial license, ending a probationary period imposed because Stokes had been cited for three speeding convictions within 12 months.

But during the past few days, White's office heard and then verified reports of another speeding ticket that Stokes had been issued in Kankakee County in February 1998. An Illinois state trooper stopped Stokes for driving 17 m.p.h. over the posted speed limit.

Stokes received court supervision for the ticket, but Kankakee County Circuit Court Clerk Monica Bauer did not report it to the secretary of state's office, as White contends she should have. Efforts to reach Bauer for comment this week have been unsuccessful.

Combined with another incident, in which Stokes was ticketed last June for driving 15 m.p.h. over the speed limit in Indiana, the Kankakee County ticket made Stokes eligible to have his commercial license disqualified for two months, White said Thursday.

Federal law allows authorities to impose that penalty for commercial drivers convicted of two serious offenses--which includes driving 15 m.p.h. over the speed limit--over the course of three years.

"The law was on his side last week," White said. "Today the law is on my side."

Stokes' lawyer said he thinks state officials are blaming his client before all the facts are in. Lawyer Leonard Sacks said White "is just responding to the public's request for a culprit here."